The need to defeat Brooklyn state Sen. Martin Golden on Election Day is crystal clear to Zachary Lombardi, a teacher at PS 200 in Golden’s district. “He doesn’t share the values of our community,” Lombardi said.

In a race that could determine the balance of power in the state Senate, Josh Robin moderated a debate between Democratic challenger Andrew Gounardes and Republican incumbent Marty Golden, in a rematch for Brooklyn's 22nd district.

Voters must oust eight-term incumbent state Sen. Marty Golden (R–Bay Ridge) on Nov. 6 because his policies do not reflect the values of his constituents, according to Golden’s Democratic challenger, Andrew Gounardes, who made his inaugural appearance on the Brooklyn Paper Radio Show on Oct. 19.

Under Republican control, the state Senate consistently delivers shabby treatment to New York City. It's time for that to change — and it can begin to in Southern Brooklyn, where 16-year Republican incumbent state Sen. Marty Golden is being challenged by Andrew Gounardes. We endorse Gounardes, a shrewd, energetic Democrat, over a legislator who has worn out his welcome in Albany.

State Sen. Marty Golden (R) and his Democratic opponent Andrew Gounardes in the upcoming 22nd State Senate District race clashed over the lifting of a cap for charter schools when KCP asked the two candidates about the issue.

Andrew Gounardes is the Democratic state senate candidate for District 22, encompassing Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights and beyond, stretching all the way to Marine Park, Gerritsen Beach and Manhattan Beach. Recently, local artist and arts advocate John Avelluto sat down with Gounardes to discuss the candidate’s Arts platform.

Andrew Gounardes is on the phone, giving one word answers to a series of questions I can’t hear—yes, no, somewhat. I’m sitting next to him in the back seat of his press officer Evan Weinberg’s Audi SUV. We’re traveling east across New York State Senate District 22, from Bay Ridge toward Dyker Heights, for a press conference. Gounardes, a lawyer, Democratic Party activist, and Bay Ridge native, is running to turn the district blue for the first time since 2003.

Democratic State Senate candidate Andrew Gounardes yesterday released a platform aimed at supporting the arts and literacy, including the promotion of local artists and cultural groups. Gounardes is running against Ross Barkan in the Democratic primary for the 22nd Senate District covering the neighborhoods of Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights, Bensonhurst, Marine Park, Gerritsen Beach, Gravesend and parts of Sheepshead Bay, Borough Park and Midwood.

The Democrat trying to unseat longtime Brooklyn state Sen. Marty Golden said Thursday that one of the “anti-corruption” reforms required in Albany is barring lawmakers from spending campaign funds at a family business. Golden has showered Bay Ridge Manor, a family-owned catering hall, with $776,643 from his campaign since at least 2001, records show.

State Senate Democratic candidate Andrew Gournardes released his economic platform Monday which aims to provide steps to improve the economy and allow equal chances at economic advancement for all New Yorkers.

The dog days of summer are forcing the incumbent and two challengers in the Bay Ridge State Senate race to work doggedly to win over voters.

Republican state Sen. Martin Golden and Democrats Ross Barkan and Andrew Gounardes are all busy traveling around the 22nd Senate District, meeting with voters, collecting endorsements and speaking out on issues.

Elected officials and community activists gathered on 87th Street yesterday to ride a bus in response to the viral video of a woman shouting hateful remarks to a Muslim lady on an S53 bus traveling to Staten Island on July 11.

Gounardes called it “an earthquake” and wrote in a fundraising email that “Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez proved what we have been seeing and hearing from voters: political machines are in trouble and communities are hungry for new leaders.”

State Senate Candidate Andrew Gounardes picked up a key endorsement from the local Assemblyman yesterday. Gounardes picked up the endorsement from Assemblyman Peter J. Abbate Jr. (D- Borough Park, Bath Beach, Dyker Heights, Bensonhurstett). Abbate is the first elected official to endorse a Democratic candidate in the race.

BAY RIDGE – Yesterday in response to the latest crash that landed a bicyclist in critical care on Bay Ridge Boulevard, Bay Ridge Council Member Justin Brannan took to Twitter, urging drivers to slow down and blaming DOT for not doing enough to calm intersections near churches, schools and libraries.

Gounardes has announced three different endorsements from political organizations across South Brooklyn. One endorsement he’s received comes from the Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats.

“I’m deeply honored to have CBID’s endorsement,” Gounardes said after a March meeting at the Park Slope Methodist Church. “The Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats are a force for good in Brooklyn. Their support validates the work I’ve been doing to make a difference in our community. I’m excited.”

Asher Novek, the president of CBID, said the club admired Gournardes’ vision for Brooklyn.

“We are proud to work with Andrew in this critical election, which could flip the State Senate back to Democratic control,” said Asher Novek, the club’s president. “He has the right vision for Brooklyn, the right ideas for change, and the right leadership qualities to make it happen. We can’t wait for him to be the next senator from Brooklyn.”

Democrat Andrew Gounardes, locked in a primary race against Ross Barkan for the right to run against Republican state Sen. Marty Golden in Bay Ridge, is boasting that he’s two-for-two in endorsements from political clubs.

On the heels of winning the support of the Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats, Gounardes, a lawyer, has been endorsed by the Brooklyn Young Democrats (BYD), a club made up of politicos between the ages of 16 and 35. That’s a lot of shoe leather that could pound the pavement pulling out the vote for Gounardes on primary day, Sept. 13.

Club President John Wasserman said Gounardes could help Democrats regain control of the State Senate from Republicans. "We want to see the Senate returned to Democratic control. And we believe that Andrew has what it takes to make that a reality. He cares deeply about his community and is exactly the kind of leader Southern Brooklyn should have," Wasserman said.

But Barkan’s competitor, Bay Ridge Democrats member Andrew Gounardes — who lost to Golden in 2012 — blasted the pol for denying his influence in the party and turning a blind eye to the problem.

“Shame on him for ignoring the real issue here. This is not a matter of simply disagreeing with a speaker who holds different views than you,” said Goundares [sic], whose club is hosting a protest at the venue the same night. “Golden’s failure to repudiate Gorka and his anti-Semitic, Islamophobic, neo-Nazi views is a slap in the face of every single person in our community.”

The gulf is wide between State Sen. Marty Golden (R-Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights, Bensonhurst, Marine Park, Gerritsen Beach, Gravesend) and the two Democrats – Ross Barkan and Andrew Gounardes – looking to unseat him this year when it comes to Gov. Andrew Cuomo‘s controversial decsion last week to issue an executive order restoring the voting rights of of up to 35,000 convicted felons on parole.

Senatorial candidates in the 22nd District voiced vocal opposition. Andrew Gounardes who began denouncing Gorka’s attendance on Twitter this weekend has started a petition in protest. “I condemn Gorka’s inclusion, specifically, in the strongest possible terms,” said Gounardes. “I’m disgusted that Marty Golden and his hand-picked Kings County Republican leaders would bring a neo-Nazi into our community. My district proudly celebrates our beautiful diversity, including our vibrant Muslim community, and Gorka has stoked Islamophobia and hatred of Muslims in this country,” he added.

Throwing his hat in the ring for a second time, Andrew Gounardes, who received 42 percent of the vote when he ran against Golden in 2012, is the strongest Democratic challenger. Gounardes has raised more than $114,000 according to the last financial filing, is the Brooklyn Borough President’s counsel, has a respected civic record, and is a son of Bay Ridge’s large Greek-American community.

As a member of the Pedestrian Safety subcommittee of Community Board 10 and an active member of Bay Ridge Advocates for Keeping Everyone Safe (B.R.A.K.E.S.), I’ve long studied this issue and advocated for Senator Golden to change his position. Golden has been hostile to the use of speed cameras since they were first proposed in New York. In 2012, Golden blocked funding in the Senate for a pilot program that would have installed cameras near just 40 city schools. A year later, funding for the first cameras was finally approved, though Golden was able to and chose to limit the program to just 20 schools. Last month, Golden suggested he’d be open to a proposal to double the number of speed cameras in school zones. However, he opposed lifting the restrictions that limit their operation to school days and hours, even though most traffic deaths happen outside of those parameters.

But it certainly won’t tie up every election 2018 storyline with a neat bow. Democrat Ross Barkan, whom I interviewed on the BRIC-TV daily news and culture show 112BK that aired today, is still challenging Martin Golden, who is still the Republican incumbent in the 22nd Senate district; Andrew Gounardes is still the other Democrat in the race. And the questions that political journalist Dave Colon asked when we talked on Tuesday are still relevant despite Wednesday’s news: What was the real reason the IDC came to be? What was the cost or gain of its having existed?

Both of Golden’s Democratic challengers, Bay Ridge journalist Ross Barkan and Bay Ridge Democrats member Andrew Gounardes, called Testaverde’s posts disgusting and demanded Golden boot him from his staff immediately —claiming it wasn’t the first time Testaverde sympathized with the neo-Nazis. During the Charlottesville riots last summer, the Golden staffer stood up for the President, who claimed both neo-nazis and their protesters were to blame for the riots, posting on Facebook he was “So proud that Donald Trump is President of the United States always two sides of the story.”

“His comments are beyond disgusting — they are morally reprehensi­ble,” said Gounardes, who also challenged Golden in 2012. “No one who espouses such despicable hatred and idiocy deserves one dime of taxpayer money.”

In an effort to improve on Governor Andrew Cuomo’s “Internet Fairness Conformity Tax” proposal, which would make sites like Amazon collect sales tax when facilitating purchases from third-party sellers, Andrew Gounardes, a Democratic candidate running against Senator Marty Golden, is proposing a further tax proposal to benefit small business.

Gounardes’ plan would lower the statewide sales tax for items purchased at small businesses, but raise it correspondingly for items bought at larger stores. He believes this will boost small businesses in Brooklyn, many of which are suffering because of large retail stores. But that’s not to say small businesses will suddenly win out over big businesses. According to Gournades, there will merely be more competition among the small, privately owned businesses.

A Democratic Bay Ridge state Senate candidate is putting the kibosh on rumors that he plans to jump ship to run for what could become a vacant Assembly seat if the disgraced Assemblywoman Pamela Harris (D–Coney Island) steps down from her post.

A handful of local activists are reportedly eyeing Harris’s Ridge-to-Coney seat after the feds charged her with stealing money from city and federal storm-recovery agencies.

Among the eager field are former Republican opponent Lucretia Regina-Potter, who had predicted Harris’s downfall, as well as Coney Island-based professor Mathylde Frontus, according to Kings County Politics, and Andrew Gounardes, a Bay Ridge Democrats member and attorney for Borough President Adams, who already declared his candidacy to oust state Sen. Marty Golden (R–Bay Ridge) and has $299,599 in his war chest.

Brooklyn’s Democratic Party Boss Frank Seddio said the Borough Hall lawyer would make a good candidate to replace Harris, but Gounardes said he only has eyes for Golden’s seat.

“My plans to run for the state senate have not changed,” Gounardes said. “Our neighborhood is ready for change and I’m running to bring that change.”

Democratic state Senate candidate Andrew Gounardes on Friday pushed Republican incumbent Martin Golden to take up a package of gun control measures in the wake of a Florida school shooting earlier this week.

The measures would extend background check times from three days to 10, create a gun violence research institute and block anyone from purchasing a gun who has been convicted of a hate crime.

About 30 people turned up last night at The Owl’s Head Bar in Bay Ridge to meet Andrew Gounardes, who is running to unseat longtime state Senator Martin Golden this year, hear him speak, and answer questions.

“It was incredible to see local residents from Bay Ridge – a neighborhood of immigrants – come together and rally in support of protecting our Dreamers,” said Andrew Gounardes, a Bay Ridge resident and candidate for the Democratic nomination to square off against State Senator Marty Golden in November. “Although the Dream Act is being debated down in Washington, the front lines of the fight to make sure that children raised in this country can stay in this country are right here in our local community. We need a clean Dream Act and we need it now.”

Gounardes said he was “offended” and “kind of shocked” by Golden’s comments, calling them “offensive and divisive,” representing “racist and classist tropes.

“To suggest that some people’s lives are worth saving and not others, really does a disservice to those who need to believe not just that they can get better, but that their lives are worth saving in the first place,” he said.

Gounardes also called for the New York State Senate’s Joint Senate Task Force on Heroin and Opioid Addiction to diversify its membership, as all 31 members are white. Golden is a member of the task force.

Gounardes has served as chief counsel to Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams for four years. Working for Adams has given him the opportunity to see what is going on around Brooklyn, Gounardes said. He has seen neighborhoods all over the borough grow and prosper, he said.

“South Brooklyn is primed for a great renaissance. It has great potential. We need new leadership to take us over that line,” Gounardes said.

Although the election is almost a full year away, already the State Senate race in Southern Brooklyn is taking shape.

This week, Attorney Andrew Gounardes announced that he is entering the race to unseat 15-year Republican incumbent Marty Golden. Gounardes already ran once in 2012 and lost to Golden by 15 percentage points.

But this time around, he thinks things will be different.

"I definitely think we will have a big Democratic year. I think we are just going to have people coming out in general who frustrated with how politics have failed them," Gounardes said. "They see corrupt deals, they see shady backroom things happening, they see failed political dysfunction, and people are frustrated regardless of the party."

“For far too long, politics in our state has valued big-money interests over working-class families, leaving us with underfunded schools, a failing transit system, and worse,” Gounardes said. “Our current senator thrives in this culture of corruption. It’s time we put a stop to that.”

A Democrat who ran against Republican state Sen. Marty Golden in 2012 and shocked the political establishment by earning more votes than Golden in the incumbent’s backyard in Bay Ridge, announced on Monday that he will run against Golden again in 2018.

Andrew Gounardes, a lawyer and a Bay Ridge civic activist, declared his candidacy for the state senate’s 22nd District in an email to supporters in which he attacked “fraudulent politicians” who he said “have repeatedly failed the people of southern Brooklyn.”

The 22nd State Senate District includes parts of several Southwest Brooklyn neighborhoods, including Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights, Bensonhurst, Gravesend, Marine Park and Gerritsen Beach.

This morning, Andrew Gounardes will send an email to supporters informing them that he intends to run for Senate in the 22nd District representing Southern Brooklyn. This is the seat held by Republican incumbent Martin Golden who was first elected in 2002. Gounardes Challenged Golden back in 2012 and garnered 42% of the vote to Golden’s 57%, losing by slightly more than 10,000 votes. But according to Gounardes, this time around is different because the district has changed.

“They spent $24 million dollars on a cosmetic renovation for the station. It’s nice, but USB chargers and leaning benches don’t do anything if you’re in a wheelchair and you can’t get into the station in the first place.

Gounardes called the MTA's inaction "inexcusable, and inexplicable, and flat out just outrageous."

"This is 2017. We’ve had more than enough time to comply with the ADA, more than enough time to make the investments necessary to make sure that the subways are accessible to everybody."

Nearly six months ago, Andrew Gounardes stood in front of a room full of Brooklyn’s most prominent Greek-Americans and in a passionate speech, called for more action from the Greek-American community on the issue of refugees and immigration.

"Less than a quarter of all subway stations in New York City are accessible for people who use wheelchairs, mobility devices, or are otherwise unable to use stairs, said Andrew Gounardes, a Bay Ridge resident and R-train rider. “This is inexplicable and inexcusable. With all the focus on fixing the subways and making sure the trains run on time, we absolutely must prioritize making the subway system work for everyone."

“The MTA’s wait-and-see approach is just their way of telling Bay Ridge riders that the burden now placed on their commutes is not important enough to justify supplemental transit services,” he told this paper. “R train riders in Bay Ridge pay the same fare as R train riders on Broadway — we are entitled and we deserve the same level of service as any other neighborhood in the city.”

As counsel to the borough president, Gounardes, who started his new job on Monday, will handle all legal matters for Adams, everything from providing legal analysis to reviewing contracts and licensing agreements. Gounardes is also the head of the borough president’s policy unit, leading a team of four staff members in developing policy initiatives for Adams.

Andrew Gounardes, who has been the society’s president since September, said the group has re-structured its leadership and is making other changes in an effort to excite Bay Ridge residents about the history of their community.

Currently, the campaign finance system rewards big donors and the politicians they donate to. If we lower the amount of money someone can donate to a campaign, incentivize small-dollar donations through a public matching system, and limit how those campaign dollars are spent, we can break the corruption cycle of wealthy donors buying off politicians and politicians using campaign funds to pay for vacation homes and luxury cars.